Viktor Frankl, a trained Austrian psychiatrist, spent five long years in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, eventually ending up in Auschwitz. During this time, he helped fellow prisoners cope with their ordeal and worked out a new approach to psychology called Logotherapy. This theory embodied Frankl’s belief that we’re all fundamentally driven by a “search for meaning.” It’s what makes us human, and we can continue this search even in the worst of situations. Not even the Nazis could take that away. This belief sustained Frankl during his imprisonment, something he wrote about in his epic work of survival literature called Man’s Search for Meaning. (It’s a must read.) The grainy footage above was recorded at a conference held in Toronto (probably during the 1960s). It gives you a quick introduction to a man who, despite personally confronting the worst humanity had to offer, still believed in our core goodness and possibilities.
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